Twitter has distanced itself from comments by an employee about providing the Justice Department with President Trump's tweets and direct messages which were caught on video and published by Project Veritas.
“The individual depicted in this video was speaking in a personal capacity and does not represent or speak for Twitter,” Twitter told International Business Times. “Twitter only responds to valid legal requests, and does not share any user information with law enforcement without such a request.”
“We deplore the deceptive and underhanded tactics by which this footage was obtained and selectively edited to fit a pre-determined narrative,” Twitter’s spokesperson said. “Twitter is committed to enforcing our rules without bias and empowering every voice on our platform, in accordance with the Twitter Rules.”
Project Veritas, a conservative group that attempts to expose media bias, released a video featuring a Twitter senior network security engineer, Clay Haynes, in a meeting. Haynes can be heard saying that Twitter is “more than happy to help the Department of Justice in their little investigation” by giving them “every single tweet that [Trump] has posted, even the ones he’s deleted. Any direct messages, any mentions.”
Trump's campaign is being looked at by special counsel Robert Mueller, who was appointed by the Justice Department, for possible collusion with the Russians during the 2016 campaign.
In another meeting, Haynes was captured saying Twitter can disclose “every single message, every single tweet, whatever you log into, what profile pictures you upload.”
Project Veritas founder James O’Keefe argued the video demonstrated political bias within Twitter because Haynes says about Trump, “I don’t like him and he’s a terrible human being.”
But Haynes also makes it clear that Twitter would not access information from any Twitter account, including Trump’s, unless the information had been requested from law enforcement after obtaining a subpoena.
Haynes added that Twitter would not do anything to stop Trump from tweeting.
“It was not my decision, the decision was that most of the stuff he tweets is completely newsworthy. And so because it’s newsworthy, even though he’s making a complete ass of himself and the country, we have to let those tweets up,” Haynes said.
O’Keefe said that Project Veritas has more footage of Haynes and that the new video is “just part one.”
Project Veritas, which has been accused of selectively editing its videos, recently came under fire after one of their reporters was exposed trying to pitch a false story to the Washington Post about failed Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore.
